The fact that I admit laughing at OSCAR may be surprising, for two reasons; it got terrible reviews, and it starred Sylvestor Stallone. Unlike his action counterparts like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone has shown very little facility for comedy in his action movies (unless you're talking about the unintentional kind, as in the RAMBO movies). But something must have been eating at him, as he expressed desire to kill off Rocky Balboa, the character that made him famous, and in the otherwise lame TANGO & CASH, his character denigrates Rambo on screen. OSCAR teams him up with Landis, a veteran comedy director (NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE), and is an adaptation of an old French farce.
The movie, however, does not hit the ground running. Stallone plays Angelo "Snaps" Provolone, a 1930's gangster who promises his dying father (Kirk Douglas) that he'll go straight in a year. This scene, even with one of our best actors in Douglas, is awfully flat. But it does get better. Provolone, who's taking elocution lessons (a nice joke), is ready to go into the banking business. Except the bankers he's working with want to take him for a ride. Vendetti (Richard Romanus), a rival mobster, wants to rub him out. And the police, led by Lt. Toomey (Kurtwood Smith), are watching Snaps, convinced he's faking. But all of those are bush league compared to Snaps' real troubles.
Those troubles are in the form of Anthony (Vincent Spano), his accountant, and Lisa (Marisa Tomei), his daughter. Anthony comes to Snaps and confesses he's been stealing money from him. Why? Because he's going to marry Snaps' daughter. Lisa announces that she's pregnant. The father? Oscar, the former chaffeur who's left for parts unknown. To make matters even more confusing, it's not Lisa Vincent wants to marry, it's Theresa (Elizabeth Barondes), who's been pretending that she's Snaps' daughter. Or is she pretending? Then there's the suitcase of women's clothes that keeps going around...
